Women's Money Wisdom

Episode 277: Money Hot Takes: Financial Controversies & Unpopular Opinions

• Melissa Joy, CFP® • Season 4 • Episode 277

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Ever feel like some financial "truths" don't quite add up? In this episode of Women's Money Wisdom, Melissa Joy, CFP®, teams up with colleague Alexa Kane, CFP®, for a candid conversation challenging some of the most widely accepted (but often unexamined) money beliefs.

🔍 What they unpack:

  • The Hidden Costs of Buy Now, Pay Later:
    From fast food to impulse buys, installment payment apps are everywhere—but at what cost? Melissa and Alexa reveal how these “convenient” options can become debt traps, especially for younger consumers.
  • The Case Against Aging in Place:
    It’s a common goal—but is it always the best one? Learn why staying in your home might not be ideal and how retirement communities could offer more social, emotional, and physical support in the long run.

💬 Expect real stories, smart analysis, and bold perspectives that just might shift your thinking. Plus, a preview of what’s next: a hot take on life insurance as an investment.

🎧 Listen now and consider:

  • Are your financial choices based on habit—or strategy?
  • Could your assumptions about aging be holding you back?
  • Who needs to hear this? Forward it to a friend.

📍Resources and more: pearlplan.com

The previous presentation by PEARL PLANNING was intended for general information purposes only. No portion of the presentation serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized investment advice from PEARL PLANNING or any other investment professional of your choosing. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and it should not be assumed that future performance of any specific investment or investment strategy, or any non-investment related or planning services, discussion or content, will be profitable, be suitable for your portfolio or individual situation, or prove successful. Neither PEARL PLANNING’s investment adviser registration status, nor any amount of prior experience or success, should be construed that a certain level of results or satisfaction will be achieved if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. PEARL PLANNING is neither a law firm nor accounting firm, and no portion of its services should be construed as legal or accounting advice. No portion of the video content should be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she will experience a certain level of results if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. A copy of PEARL PLANNING’s current written disclosure Brochure discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request or at https:...

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Women's Money Wisdom Podcast. I'm Melissa Joy, a certified financial planner and the founder of Pearl Planning. My goal is to help you streamline and organize your finances, navigate big money decisions with confidence and be strategic in order to grow your wealth. As a woman, you work hard for your money and I'm here to help you make the most of it. Now let's get into the show. And I'm here to help you make the most of it. Now let's get into the show. Just a quick note before we dive in.

Speaker 1:

The information that we share is meant to educate and inspire, not serve as personalized financial advice. Everyone's situation is unique, so be sure to consult with your own financial professional for guidance that fits your life. And just so you know, the opinions shared in this podcast are my own and those of my guests, and they don't necessarily represent those of any organizations that I'm affiliated with. For more important disclosures, please go to our webpage at pearlplancom. Now let's get started. I thought it was time to change the script, and today we are going to be talking about hot money takes controversial topics, and I hope this will be a recurring episode type in the future for Women's Money Wisdom. I am joined by my colleague, alexa Kane. Alexa, like myself, is a certified financial planner here at Pearl Planning in Dexter, michigan. Alexa, welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 2:

Thank you. I'm glad to be here after a few years.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's been a minute since you joined us, but we work together every single day and I thought you'd be perfect to just talk about some of the you know kind of I don't know cooler talk that we sometimes have. I wanted to talk about controversial topics or topics that not everybody agrees with, where we have a strong opinion. It's okay to have opinions, but this might be an example where, like in terms of my hot takes, sometimes I'm bringing that advice into client situations and mentioning it, so I just thought I would bring it into the episode. So it's no holds barred Tell me how you really feel and let's talk about some topics that you know may have conventional wisdom different than the way we feel.

Speaker 2:

Do you want me to start?

Speaker 1:

Sure, If you're ready. I don't want to put you in the hot seat, but let's go for it, give me your hot take, I think.

Speaker 2:

Every day, you know, we sit together so we get to talk about things, and today it's May 23rd, so just in the news today it's Klarna had some information out about borrowing and I think that's a good topic for for a hot take, or I don't know. I don't think it's a hot take, but it is.

Speaker 1:

My first question was what? What is Klarna Cause I? I was like I've heard that name, but who are they.

Speaker 2:

So, um, klarna, a firm anytime you know Amazon, you're shopping and it says, hey, do you want to buy the dress or do you want to pay? $10 a month for six months, and they're just basically allowing you to finance these smaller purchases. Klarna had a deal with DoorDash, which is kind of where my hot take is. Where my hot take is. But on Klarna, the one thing that's coming out is like between 30 and 50% of adults have used or are looking to use these financing services and one.

Speaker 2:

I think there's a large difference of financing a couch or a larger item than your late night McDonald's order that you have. So I guess my hot take would be if you have to finance your fast food, you probably should not be getting it. Yeah, I definitely think that. I think now you know, my kids probably will not know how to count money in the quarters nickels, dimes type of way. So I think it gets a lot harder to use and spend money when you don't have the tangible piece of it that they make everything so easy. So I think that over time, you know you can just access these things and it doesn't really connect until you look at the, the balance sheet, and it's negative. And there's all these outstanding loans for our McDonald's and Taco Bell things.

Speaker 1:

If I'm not mistaken, the interest rates, too, are as high, or likely higher, than credit card rates, so we're talking about astronomical interest rates in today's day and age, today's day and age.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's, the rates are high and it's so easy to to access. That I think twofold problem and there's multiple companies out there kind of doing the same thing. So the ability to just get in more trouble, I think, is it's out there. So I would say, maybe not a hot take, but I think a take a lot of people can can agree on.

Speaker 1:

Well, I, I, I agree, Like many people can agree on. But this is probably a discussion you should be having in your family because who you know, think about the door dash I described to Alexa when we were preparing for this episode. I think I've door dashed once because we live in a small town where it's just not that convenient to have your stuff delivered because there are only so many places they're all within five minutes away and there just isn't, like you know, the same as urban centers where they're dropping off the door. But you send your kids, who haven't been used to that, to college and you know anybody is willing to do a delivery to the dorm room or the campus apartment and that's where you know are looking for the convenience they're going to just swipe the card and pay off their credit card at the end of the month. This is really appealing to you know, kind of fringe or entering the economy, demographic. It's your kids that you need to warn, or more vulnerable family members perhaps.

Speaker 2:

And you know, part of it also goes back to like when we're talking with clients, I think we're not people that will it's not a place of shame, or you know spend your money how you want to spend it, as long as everything works out. So it is um, everything can fit in in a plan. But it goes back to like, okay, you know, if you prioritize this over that, you know you can do anything, but you can't do everything. And as a working mom with three kids, like, yes, sometimes you need you need the door dash, but you know then you're substituting for other things to make it work within in your plan and make the the numbers go out. But I do think having to to do the financing piece on on the food is like, okay, that's where we might have gone a bit far A bit.

Speaker 1:

I mean probably almost every transaction that we do at least 50%. If you're someone who shops online or for me it's like on my mobile phone gives you those offers and I always just ignore them gives you those offers and I always just ignore them, and you know, fortunately or unfortunately, my digits are memorized to the phone and it's just you know 10 seconds to have the transaction complete. But if you are someone who's relying on those buy now, pay later, you know kind of regimes, it's probably not just once, just like you're saying. I mean back in the day. Instead of taking the inventory and getting those for lack of a better word really modern payday loans, what people would do would be to, for example, lay away for items, but they never, would take those items with them.

Speaker 1:

They would, you know, bring their $10 to the store every week so that they could get their kids the Christmas presents and stuff like that.

Speaker 2:

And so you know, yeah, yeah, At Shopko I remember yeah, the.

Speaker 1:

A&P? Yeah, exactly so. But nowadays, you know we're in such a fast money economy where transit and you know people don't save for things long term Everything can be paid for on your phone. When you were describing that our kids don't see physical money can be paid for on your phone, when you were describing that our kids don't see physical money, you know my son was asking hey, I need to go to a bank with all the coins in my piggy bank to turn them into cash. I'm like cash Coins are cash dude.

Speaker 1:

Like news to us, because I didn't know I needed to cover that topic in our family personal finance class. But here we are. But you know it's a vulnerable cohort of people that don't have the money in their account today. And if you start to do recurring transactions, such as your food, you know, we both know that the most economical food options probably aren't, you know, with the Jimmy john's driver or the uber eats and things like that. So that is just like you know. I I hope there's a bailout plan for those types of people within their family network, because if you don't have the money this week, uh, you're probably going to have more things lining up that you need to pay for next week.

Speaker 1:

If you're borrowing for the, you know for the food delivery for example if you find yourself in that vortex, maybe you're listening and you've gotten into this um, the NPL, um you know kind of habit. Do you have any suggestions for how to dig your way out?

Speaker 2:

I think one recognizing that, that it's a problem and then looking at a budget is another hot take. Maybe is the B word, but I think you know, if you get to that place where it is becoming, a problem is to look at a budget and really put everything in there and take a look at where it's going and identify what the issues are of. Like you, you know we need groceries, you have to have mire, you need your gas, like there are things that are needs, there are things that are wants, and then you know, does it fit into the picture right now? And also coming coming up with a plan of, ok, we're at this point and it happens a lot, not just with these buy now, pay later stuff, but with just regular credit cards, and getting into a place where this interest is just putting you even further behind and saying, ok, what's the best plan to get these paid down? And then the other part is to not get in there in that situation again.

Speaker 2:

So it is. You know, either you use a budgeting app or you print out the credit card statements and get your different color highlighters this was this was groceries, this was X was xyz, um. And I think another part is like how were you feeling when you did these things? Of clicking by and getting the things as like a, an instant little hi or pick me up, and it's kind of identifying like oh, you know, I do this behavior when I'm feeling this way and like maybe adjusting what you're doing to handle the feelings and stuff of like I. I like to shop as well. I shop at the thrift store so it doesn't hit as hard.

Speaker 1:

But Alexa's got her shopping down. We can? That'll be a future episode, not a hot take episode.

Speaker 2:

But you know it's the same, it's your feelings when you're doing these things of like oh, I like getting new clothes when I'm stressed and it's at the thrift store, it's thirty dollars, it can still add up, but it is. Oh, I got to eat whenever I had a long day, but it is oh, I got to eat whenever I had a long day and it's like, OK, retraining your brain. Of like, hey, maybe you take a walk, or maybe you call someone and just have an event session and like figuring out you know where the money's going, but also why it's going to these places as well.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean, your example screams impulse, right, so not to call out my younger self, but perhaps you know some of those decisions are made when you're exhausted, made when you're, you know, just kind of throwing up your hands or you may feel depleted about money in general and just like, okay, just this once, or maybe after a long bar night when you're a college kid or something like that.

Speaker 1:

So I do think I'll just throw in this is definitely like hands down a bad debt decision and there's no ifs ands or buts about it when it comes to this type of use of funds. So if you find yourself in the habit of using those, you know, kind of like I said, it's just like old school payday loans where it's usurious rates it's really hard to dig your way out. You know I'm not typically a like blow everything up, but this is when you've got to cut off the cards. You know, enroll yourself in the never going onto that site again, because you can't just like kind of leave that door open when you're trying to address things um so you know I will.

Speaker 1:

My own hot take, though, on the loan situation is that, um, you know, we have a? Um conversation about both national debt and deficits, which we're not going to solve today, as well as personal um debt and um, this is this is, like you know, like I said, on the list of horrible debt, but um, many people will post. You know, look at us consumers credit card debt the us consumer is doomed and, um, my hot take would be that, overall, on average and not talking about like, these types of loans serve a vulnerable population and a young population and people that don't have adequate cash flow, and yet, in general, the American consumer, or the average American, may have higher and higher credit card debt, but also, in many cases, those higher and higher assets. A lot of those charts don't factor in inflation and I don't see a general American consumer crisis, but I do see a lot of vulnerability in areas of less informed consumers and also just those at the lower end of the wealth range, and so it's not all bad debt and we're not in just a general borrowing crisis. We still see a lot of people that do use credit cards, but use them responsibly and pay it off at the end of the month. So my hot take on your hot take is there's both good and bad debt and we're not, you know, kind of going into, you know, the the newest, 2008 and 2009, where just everybody's upside down on their whole entire balance sheets.

Speaker 1:

So well, let's, I'm willing to bring out my hot take now if you want to change the subject. It's completely different. Subject willing to bring out my hot take now if you want to change the subject. It's completely different. Subject um, but this was kind of um, when I was thinking about having this format of an episode. Um, I described to alexa a book by an author that we, um, both read. So, um, one of both of our well, I hope I'm not speaking out of turn on your behalf, but Abby Jimenez is one of both of our favorite authors right Automatic five stars for me.

Speaker 1:

Automatic five stars in spite of my upcoming hot take. So if you're an Abby Jimenez fan and read all of her books and you haven't read her most recent books, say you'll remember me then you may want to skip the rest of the episode until after you read the book, which we would both recommend you read. But she writes great books. They're romance-y, they're kind of summer beach reads. They always have, you know, a deeply layered story with emotions and just really great character development too. So five stars for all Abby Jimenez books.

Speaker 1:

But I read the most recent book, say You'll Remember Me.

Speaker 1:

And here's the spoiler alert that it comes up very early in the book is that the main character, the main female character's mother, is a early onset Alzheimer's patient and the family has made a major commitment for her mother to stay in the home, and a lot of the storyline is about the consequences of those sacrifices and how it weighs on the family, and so it's a really thought-provoking book, along with a romance that if you don't read romances, the rule is that there's always happy endings.

Speaker 1:

So I found myself telling Alexa, though, that I felt a little angsty reading the book, which is not typical when I read these books by this terrific author, and I came to recognize that the reason I felt angsty is because, over the years, as a financial planning practitioner, I feel more and more conflicted when I hear a client say I will do everything I can to never be in an assisted living facility, a nursing facility or in you know the circumstances of this book a memory care facility.

Speaker 1:

And so I just thought I would talk about this without breaking the book under the coals. I just want to talk about the topic of, in my opinion as someone who has seen people aging in more active retirement communities that can transition to additional levels of skilled care versus aging in place in the home, I just don't know that it's best for everyone to stay at home, and I'm sure that's controversial. That's my hot take, but let's talk about it. How do you feel, alexa, and what have you seen? And then I'll describe a little bit about why I feel the way I feel.

Speaker 2:

Well, I think what a lot of people like the idea of staying in their home, but I think with all the estate planning topics, a lot of it isn't really about you of, I guess is how I would put it like if you know you are planning to stay in your home, someone has to do the actual caring, or if they're not doing the caring, the coordination of, of the, the care. So I'll do a side hot take of I. If you don't do your estate planning documents, you're doing a disservice to your family and anyone that you care about. Amen, it doesn't matter, I'll be dead people, that's true, you will not be there, but you know being on the other side and helping people navigate what happens after someone passes away. It is, you know, like the greatest gift you can give somebody is a thoughtful plan that accounts for what should happen, the decision of oh, I would love to stay in my home, and a lot of homes are not made for people that are in that situation. If you have stairs, if getting into the house, getting into the bathtub, all the things that are part of that.

Speaker 2:

And you know, in the book, well, it is the husband, the son, the main character is the daughter. There's all these people that are trying to coordinate. You know one person will have the overnight shift and one person will watch in the morning, and you know just the toll and the stress it puts on the rest of the family. Even if you hire outside people, you know it's hard to find people that are willing and able to provide that care and that one you're also comfortable having in your home. So it's not as simple as oh, I'm going to stay here, I'm going to go to a nursing home. It's a lot to decide on and I think you know in the book that was her wish. But I think if she would have, you know, known the toll that it had on the people she cared most about, she probably would have made a different, different decision to, you know, keep the family more together.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I, I just find myself.

Speaker 1:

You know it's a very sensitive subject because everyone has experiences with older family, most people have experiences with older family members. No one loves the to contemplate or at least most of us don't the consequences of aging in our own lives, and I often have clients who say, you know, like no, I'm not going to live that long, things like that. Or also, like I said, those people who just say categorically I we need to make a plan for me to live where I live, a plan for me to live where I live. But the consequences, even when you know you're either taking care of each other in a partnership where you're both, you know may have diminishing either cognitive or physical abilities, the consequences of lower nutrition when you're responsible for preparing your own meals, going out to get your food and the social isolation of staying in your home are all things that I wish more people would consider more carefully, because they can, in fact, advance decline and contribute to adverse outcomes. And I think it's easy to say you know, I just I don't want to give up this home for that facility, but there's so much of a compromise in between. Studies have shown that people have lower bad health outcomes, lower hospitalization rates when they live in active retirement communities or senior communities, not in assisted living, relative to those who choose to stay in you know, kind of the previous living arrangement for years prior to your older years. And then you also have the consequences of costs, which it used to be that you would be saving money with home health care, um, versus going into um, an assisted living facility or nursing home. But I don't know that that is as much of the case nowadays. With the cost of home care, it's really difficult to keep home care staff and to find qualified staff that can come in. And then it's just a constant need for case management and project management to keep things right and above board.

Speaker 1:

I was talking about this with a doctor, actually, who I mentioned. You know I just have this. Usually I try to be completely kind of Switzerland when clients come in and say this is what I want, but I felt compelled over recent years to say more and to challenge assumptions when it comes to this type of conversation. And she said oh yeah, there's definitely medical evidence that indicates that you have better aging outcomes when you choose to be in a place with more socialization, more attention to your medication needs and your nutritional needs and activities, and perhaps a more active lifestyle. Yeah, so I encourage you to have these conversations earlier and don't not read the book because of this, but do. If you do read the book, which, like I said, we 100% recommend we'll include a link in show notes. There are so many great reads written by this author.

Speaker 1:

But do have a conversation with your family members about what you want and and um, but also when you may need to make a different decision.

Speaker 1:

Um, that might be best for, in my opinion, not only the family's outcomes because in this book's case, there's a person who has less and less memories, um memories, and there's adverse outcomes all around, including safety issues but also, you know, just have some frank discussions about and pepper in some, you know, like kind of everybody has their worst case scenario, or I don't want to be like you know the nursing home grandma was in, but do pepper in some like evolving you know kind of realities when it comes to your options, because, especially for people who have been careful with their money, you can make some really upfront and independent decisions that could have a longer pathway.

Speaker 1:

I've always used the example and I know, alexa, you have heard me use this example frequently that my first and one of my most important mentors, estelle assumed, chose to go into a great active living community and over the years, has been aging in a place in that community that she chose along with her husband, and I just really see the value to being around other active, engaged, similar, like-minded people in terms of just a beautiful, you know kind of process for aging, and so I encourage people to consider that that could be an outcome and but it was all about being a family that was open to change and change by their own design. We're not always afforded that option when people wait to make adjustments and sometimes you just can't control that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I also have had clients that have made the decision as well to move into a community, and I think it gives them the control of you're doing something because you want to, not because you have to, and they were able to clean out their old house. They got to go through all the boxes. The kids were happy, they didn't have to, you know, pick which things to save and which things not to save. I know even now when I go home, like we don't need this, why did you keep this from when I was in middle school? Like you know, there's it's a lot of things that fall to the people doing the care, and not just you know where you're going. But then what do you do with all the, all the things and what's important too?

Speaker 1:

It's so much easier to lay out that game plan or thought, talk about it theoretically in your 50s, 60s or 70s versus just in a crisis where, if you didn't have the original game plan, it would be much more difficult to feel okay when you're, you know, could be dealing with emerging issues at the same time. Well, I loved the opportunity to discuss our hot takes. Alexa, will you be keeping an eye out for some future hot takes?

Speaker 2:

yeah, I have a teaser of what we can talk about next time. Oh, tell me, what are we? What's the preview?

Speaker 1:

life insurance oh, life insurance is an investment. Yes, oh, the hot takes will be hot and on fire for that one. Let's have that discussion soon that needs its own episode okay, sounds good.

Speaker 1:

hot takes um insurance version coming to you soon, but in the meantime, have a great week week everybody. Thanks Alexa. Yeah, thanks for having me. Thank you for listening to the Women's Money Wisdom Podcast. If you found value in this episode. The best way you can support the podcast is to forward an episode to a friend or leave a review. Go to pearlplancom and the podcast link to get all the resources and links mentioned.

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Melissa Joy, CFP

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